Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Compromised Oceans Mean Compromised People

Majia here: I'm a water person - I love the ocean, lakes, streams, etc. So, it seems obvious to me how radiation contamination of the world's oceans will ultimately compromise all life on earth.

I think that when people read about ocean contamination, their immediate reaction is concern over contaminated food, such as fish. And the evidence is increasingly clear that Fukushima is going to contaminate sea life significantly, and not just in Japan.

Furthermore, the radioactive isotopes in sea life are going to be more concentrated in those who eat the sea life: Excessive cesium found in 9 types of fish caught near Fukushima plant Sept. 19, Kyodo http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/09/183306.html[Excerpted] Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that excessive levels of radioactive cesium were detected in nine types of fish caught between Aug. 20 and Sept. 5 in the sea within a 20-kilometer range of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Cesium measuring as much as 1,350 becquerels per kilogram was found in greenling hauled 1 km off the coast of Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture on Sept. 5. The level of cesium was far higher than the 100 becquerels deemed by the Japanese government as safe for consumption.

The utility, which operates the crisis-hit nuclear plant, also said 540 becquerels and 390 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kg were detected respectively in rock fish and skate caught in the waters. [end excerpt]

Majia here: Enenews has another headline pointing to contamination of sea life:

Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants on Marine Radioactivity Ken Buesseler, Michio Aoyama, and Masao Fukasawa Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45 (23), pp 9931–9935 Publication Date (Web): October 20, 2011 (Article)Majia here: What people ALSO need to realize is that the ocean is not simply a great big sink for contamination. The ocean is a major source of PRECIPITATION.

We know that uranium bucky balls were transmitted through the atmosphere from Fukushima. Some of those bucky balls no doubt came down in precipitation over land and ocean.Many politicians and other nuclear advocates argue that ocean rain-outs pose no dangers to people.I contend that is simply not correct. Let us look at buckyballs and consider their transport, impact on ocean, and uptake in the water cycle.

[Excerpted] Uranium in nuclear fuel rods is in a
chemical form that is “pretty insoluble” in water, Navrotsky said, unless the
uranium is oxidized to uranium-VI — a process that can be facilitated when radiation
converts water into peroxide, a powerful oxidizing agent.

Peter Burns, professor of civil
engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a
co-author of the new paper, had previously made spherical uranium peroxide
clusters, rather like carbon “buckyballs,” that can dissolve or exist as
solids.

In the new paper, the researchers
show that in the presence of alkali metal ions such as sodium — for example, in
seawater — these clusters are stable enough to persist in solution or as small
particles even when the oxidizing agent is removed.

In other words, these clusters could form on the
surface of a fuel rod exposed to seawater and then be transported away,
surviving in the environment for months or years before reverting to more common forms of uranium, without peroxide, and settling to the bottom of
the ocean.

Majia here: Except, the uranium that ends up in the ocean may not necessarily "settle" at the bottom.

Lead doesn't necessarily settle, so I suspect that uranium may not either.

Read the following discussion of the transport of heavy metals via the water cycle and learn how lead in the ocean ends up in precipitation. (Radioactive lead has already been detected in Japan and sourced to Fukushima).

Consider potential implications for uranium and plutonium.

GESAMP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of
Marine Environmental Protection

“Studies suggest that the concentrations of dissolved
gaseous mercury are often supersaturated in surface waters, resulting in a
significant flux of elemental mercury to the atmosphere in those regions
(Fitzgerald et al 2007). Indeed, there is evidence that the fluxes of mercury
from the ocean to the atmosphere globally are similar to the level of
anthropogenic emissions” (p. 22)

Majia here: To repeat: "dissolved
gaseous mercury are often supersaturated in surface waters, resulting in a
significant flux of elemental mercury to the atmosphere in those regions."

CONTAMINATION IN THE OCEAN MAY BE READILY TRANSMITTED TO THE ATMOSPHERE and END UP ON LAND THROUGH PRECIPITATION.

Radiation contamination - i.e., radioactive isotopes
such as uranium - ending up in land-based flora and fauna through the
water cycle WILL bio-magnify up the food chain:

1 comment:

This is a gas which dissolves in ocean water and is rereleased into the atmosphere, becoming incorporated into the food chain directly. It is formed when neutrons from criticality in Fuku corium react with nitrogen in the soil.

About Me

I am a Professor at a large public university. I study political economy and biopolitics (the politics of life). My interests are diverse but are broadly concerned with economic, social and environmental justice. I have published 5 books: Crisis Communication, Liberal Democracy and Ecological Sustainability: The Threat of Financial and Energy Complexes in the Twenty-First Century (2016); Fukusima and the Privatization of Risk (2013); Constructing Autism (2005); Governmentality, Biopower and Everyday Life (2008/2011); Governing Childhood (2010).
I also participated in an edited collection on Fukushima: Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization (2014).